Although Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show helped Native Americans join together and create a transformed religion and culture, to …show more content…
The show mythologized America’s past, fixing in many viewers ' minds the ‘Plains Indians’ as stuck in that period of time and as a culture and religion defeated by cowboys. By doing so Native Americans were set in Euro-Americans minds as a stuck, traditional, and stasis religion, and were therefore unable to be defined as a ‘World’ Religion which were the ones showcased at the world’s fair. The leaders of The World’s Columbian Exposition defined a ‘World’ Religion as fluid, intellectual, and dynamic, containing faith, belief, and texts. The leaders who had the power to define what would be a showcased ‘World’ Religion included the President of the World’s Congresses at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Charles C. Bonney, a member of The New Church, the Chairman of the 1883 General Committee of the World’s Parliament of Religions, John Henry